Air cell for concreting



R. T. WALES. AIR CELL FOR CONCRETING.

APPLICATION. FILED AUG-23, 1920.

Patented Jan. M}, 1922.

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ROWLAND T. WALES, OE NEW ROCHELLE, NEW YORK.

AIR CELL FOR CQNCEETING.

Application filed. August 23, 1920. Serial No. 405,409.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that l, ROWLAND T. WALES, a citizen of the United States of America, residing in New Rochelle, in the county of l Vestchester and State of New York, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Air Cells for Concreting, of which the following is a specification.

This invention provides an improved means for use in concreting walls or the like for forming air spaces therein. The invention provides a cheap air cell of the shape of the cavity desired, and which is set up and properly positioned in the mold, so that the concrete wall is formed on both sides of or entirely around the cell, and the latter is left permanently within the concrete wall. The construction is so cheap that it affords a more practical means of forming cavities in such walls than by means of a collapsible core such as is commonly used and which requires to be left until the concrete sets and then collapsed or removed, or lifted to a higher position for continuing the concreting. The invention provides an air cell which comprises an inexpensive supporting frame and plates of metal or other suitable material fastened on opposite sides of such frame; the frame is built as a grid, being subdivided by cross bars at sufficiently frequent intervals to afford a support for the outer plates to hold them against collapsing during the pouring and ramming of the concrete. The frame or grid is best constructed of strips of wood nailed or otherwise united, and the side plates are best made of thin sheet steel or of any other suitably strong material fastened to the frame with sufiicient permanency to hold their positions during the concreting. In order to unite the portions of the wall on opposite sides of the cavity or air cell, suitable ties are provided which are fastened around the margins of the cell at suitable intervals, and which project beyond it, and their projecting portions are embedded and locked in the concrete. Their ends are bent or otherwise shaped to lock with the concrete as is usual with such ties.

In the drawings, which illustrate the preferred construction embodying the invention,

Figure l is a vertical section of a wall form showing the wall partly concreted, and showing two air cells in place;

Fig. 2 is a fragmentary plan of a portion 1 of such wall showing the form and two adjoining air cells in place with an intervenin tie of the form;

*ig. 3 is a face view of an air cell with the metal plate partly cut away to show the supporting frame or grid;

Fig. l is an edge elevation thereof;

Fig. 5 is a horizontal section of the grid and two metal plates separated;

Fig. 6 is a fragmentary transverse section of the cell on a larger scale;

Fig. 7 is a fragmentary longitudinal section showing one corner of the cell on the same larger scale.

Referring to Figs. 1 and 2, A A are the usual form boards or panels, and B B the usual upright frames or studs, such as are commonly used in concreting walls. These studs are commonly tied together at intervals by ties C, which may be a rod, as shown, with rod clamps or screw nuts D for fastening the opposite ends according to any common well known construction; or any known construction of wire tie or any tying means may be used. The form or mold shown is simply illustrative and may be substituted by forms with metal studs and intervening panels, or any other construction of concreting forms.

E E are the air cells, which are made of whatever thickness the air space or cavity in the wall is desired to have. For ordinary wall concreting a thickness of one half inch to two inches is suitable. The height and width of these air cells may be varied as desired, a suitable dimension for ordinary concreting being a height of about 36 inches and a width of about 13 inches. The width selected should be approximately equal to the space between successive form ties, or to definite fractions thereof, for the more convenient mounting of the cells in place.

The air cells are built up of a supporting framework or grid, and plates of sheet metal or other suitable material fastened to the opposite faces thereof. The supporting frame is lettered F, and the metal plates Ur G. The frame F is made of outer or marginal members a a for the sides, and 6 Z) for the top and bottom; to provide intervening support for the metal plates at suitable intervals, the space within the outer frame is here shown subdivided by inner members 0 c, which may run longitudinally, and (Z (Z, which may run transversely. The frame is best built of suitably dimensioned strips of wood which may, for example, be

one and a half inches wide and one-half inch thick. The various members are united in any suitable way, preferably by use of ormembers a c are slightly out of line with the right or left-hand strips (Z, so that each may be separately nailed. The plates Gr G are suitably fastened to the frame, preferably by applying nails at intervals, as shown at e e in Fig. 3, and at h h in Fig. 4. The metal sheets are best formed with marginal flanges, as shown at f f in Fig. 5, and also in Figs. 6 and 7. For this purpose the sheets are cut larger than the frame, as indicated by dotted lines f in Fig. 3, the corners being cut off and a slit cut near each corner and the projecting portions turned in to form the flanges f f. The parts are shown. separated in Fig. 5 to make these flanges more clear. The flanges on the respective plates Gr G pass one outside of the other, as shown in Fig. 6, and nails in are driven through both into the frame at intervals.

Ties H H are applied to. the margins of the air cell at suitable intervals. The purpose of these ties is to project beyond the air cell into the concrete as the latter is built up, and thereby connect the outer or main por tion J of the concrete wall with the minor or inner portion K thereof. For this purpose the ties have to extend beyond both faces of the air cell, and their projecting portions which become embedded in the concrete have to have bends or shoulders to interlock with the concrete. This is conveniently accomplished by making the ties of wires or rods the ends of which are turned at right angles, as shown in Fig. 4:, the middle portion being fastened by means of a staple i; or the tie may be made of a doubled or looped wire, as shown at H in Fig. 4:, which may be fastened by one or preferably by two staples z'. This tie may be placed at the corners, as shown at H in Figs. 3 and 4:. The ties, however they be formed, may be located upon one end and one side only of each cell; or they may be located in staggered relation upon opposite ends and sides, so that as the successive cells are put in position, the ties will be suitably distributed along their adj acent margins. Ties could also be put through the middle portion of the air cell, but this would be somewhat inconvenient and expensive as compared with the marginal ties.

In concreting, the form is built up in the usual manner and the air cells E E are set in vertical positions at a prescribed distance from the respective walls of the form, 'according to requirements. The cells may be held in place by spacing strips such as shown at 7' j in Fig. 2, these strips being knocked out as the concreting proceeds. The usual spacing strips between the form walls A A at the tie rods C are shown in dotted lines at 70, these strips being laid above the respec tive air cells and removed when the concreting reaches nearly to the top of such cells. When the concrete wall is finished, it contains an air space formed by the respective cells, which are set edge to edge, so that this air space is nearly or quite continuous. The desired dead air non-conductor is thus afforded, the various partitions c d subdividing each air cell into separate compartments, so that each compartment forms of itself a dead air space. The air cells also prevent moisture from passing from the outer portion into the inner portion of the wall, so that the latter may either directly receive a finishing coat of plaster, or it may itself be finished or decorated in any desired way in lieu of a plaster coat. A wall made up of these cells has the requisite moisture proof and non-conducting properties from the time that the concrete becomes fully seasoned. As time goes on the thin sheet metal forming the plates G G may rust out and fall in flakes into the compartments formed within the frame or grid. This does no harm because the metal plates perform their sole function during the con creting and setting of the concrete, and thereafter it is immaterial what may become of them. It mlght, however, be disadvantage ous for the plates to fall in flakes of rusty iron to the bottom of each air cell, and to prevent this is one of the functions of the subdivision of the cell by the strips 65 d. Thesewooden strips ought to last indefinitely, but even if they should in time rot and fall out of place, no serious results would ensue. Unless they largely lost their integrity, they could not fall far, because of the avoid the falling of the members (5 cl by reason of their fastening nails becoming rusted out, it is desirable to make the nails of non-rusting material, such as galvanized iron, or preferably of copper. V r

I am aware that it is common to concrete in ties to hold the outer and inner sections of a concrete wall with an intervening air space in proper relation, and I claim such ties only in their association with the air cells of my invention. The construction of these cells may be considerably modified within the scope of the appended claims. The invention is not limited to the precise construction shown, which, however, is deemed a good embodiment thereof.

The air cell provided by this invention may be used in another manner than that above described. The major part J of the wall may be first concreted by setting'the' form plates A A a distance apart equal to the thickness of this wall; then, when this small ledge of concrete under each cell. To

has set sutficiently to enable the form on one side (say the inner side) to be removed, this portion of the form is set back a distance equal to the combined thickness of the air cell and the minor portion K of the wall. If the air cells are one and a half inches thick, and the portion K two and a half inches thick, the inner form will be set back four inches from its original position. To admit of this the tie rods C should be left projecting on the inner side a suificient distance. Then the air cells are set in place against the finished portion J of the wall and held spaced by spacing strips away from the inner form; concrete is then flowed in to form the inner portion K of the wall. For utilizin the invention in this manner the ties H H instead of being fastened to the edges of the air cells, are inserted in the concrete during the concreting of the main portion J of the wall, being located by means of holes in the boards A in the well known manner. The only important condition is that the ties should be accurately spaced soas to leave a clear space between them for the placing of each of the air cells E. The ties H H are best made of l. form, their bent portions being concreted into the wall J and their straight portions held in holes in the form boards, an arrangement which permits of the ready backing off of the inner forms, after which the inner ends of the ties are to be turned at right angles to enable them to properly engage with the concrete of the wall member The following is another method or manner of installing the air cells provided by this invention. The major part J of the wall is concreted first while the cells are held in their desired positions by any structure, framework or form suitable for such purpose. One side of the part J (the left side in Fig. 1) is formed directly against the plates A. Substantially all the opposite side of the same part J is formed directly against the cells E. The ties H are fastened or stapled to the edges of the cells E, as shown. When J is hard enough, the form is adjusted for placing the minor part K of the wall. The following is one specific example of this method of installing the cells.

When the major part J is being placed, the part of the form (A B) shown at the right of Fig. 1 (and at the lower part of Fig. 2) is first set suiiiciently inward (from the position where it is shown), so that it will constitute a lateral support for the cells E. When in this position the ends of the ties H come in contact with it and these ends are temporarily bent flat against the cells, so that the cells will be very close to the boards A. Sticks like j in Fig. 2 support the cells from falling inward of the form, as explained above. After the part J of the wall has become hard, the said part of the form (A B) is moved away from the cells to the position shown in Figs. 1 and 2 where it is ready for forming the part K of the wall. The tie rods C are long enough to permit the readjustment of said part of the form. Prior to their readjustment, the rods C are slightly turned or moved to prevent them becoming too strongly held by the cement in the completed part J of the wall, and so that they may be pulled out when the part K is completed. Bofore the part K is placed, the ends of the ties H (which were previously bent flat against the cells), are now straightened or bent so that they will project as shown into the part K of the wall. (These ties preferably have the shape of loops as shown at H in Fig. 4.) The part K of the wall is finally concreted as shown in Figs. 1 and 2.

The invention may be otherwise applied, and may be Varied as may be required for adapting it to the particular system of concreting that is to be practiced.

I claim as my invention 1. An air cell for permanent installation in a concrete wall, comprising a supporting frame and plates fastened against opposite sides thereof.

2. An air cell for permanent installation in a concrete wall, comprising a supporting frame or grid of outer members and inter mediate cross pieces, and plates fastened against opposite sides thereof.

3. An air cell for permanent installation in a concrete wall, comprising a supporting frame or grid of outer members and indeterminate members dividing the cell into compartments, and plates fastened against opposite sides thereof.

4. An air cell for a concrete wall comprising a supporting frame or grid of outer members and intermediate members of wood nailed together, and plates nailed against opposite sides thereof.

5. An air cell for a concrete wall comprising a supporting frame and plates fastened against opposite sides thereof, and having edge flanges engaging the outer margins of the frame.

6. An air cell according to claim 1, having ties fastened to its edges and projecting beyond the cell to be embedded in the concrete on opposite sides thereof.

7. An air cell according to claim 1, having ties fastened to its edges, each comprising a wire loop fastened at its middle portion to the cell and having its looped portions projecting beyond the cell to be embedded in the concrete on opposite sides thereof.

In witness whereof I have hereunto signed my name.

ROWLAND T. WALES. 

